2024 NFT revenue surpasses last year’s $8 billion

The broader non-fungible token (NFT) market has defied expectations after surpassing last year’s revenue milestone.

Data collected by CryptoSlam shows that with less than a week to go before 2024 ends, NFT sales for the year have totaled $8,717,920,832, surpassing 2023’s figure by about $230,000.

The Numbers

Last year, the sector recorded more than 91.55 million transactions, bringing in $8.71 billion for CryptoSlam. However, in 2024, the total number of transactions decreased significantly, reaching only 70.89 million.

However, an increase in unique buyers and sellers helped balance the balance, with a total of 7.5 million firsts and 4 million seconds. These were the highest numbers recorded since 2017, the closest being the 3.8 million sellers captured last year and the 5.4 million buyers in 2022.

There have been discussions about the prospects for the NFT space for some time now, with the hype that once engulfed them waning considerably. But analysts have urged not to write off the industry entirely, a sentiment justified by the year’s performance, which, while well below 2022’s record $23.7 billion in sales from 56 million transactions, it has been remarkably better than expected.

The next best period was 2021, when the industry generated $15.7 billion from 34 million transactions involving 3.6 million unique sellers and more than 5 million buyers. The 2024 numbers are on pace to be the third highest return on record, marginally beating last year’s numbers.

The space also suffered losses recently when the Nike-owned RTFKT project announced it would be closing up shop in 2025 after making nearly $50 million since its launch.

Monthly statistics

Looking more to the near term, last month presented a mixed outlook for NFTs. While global sales volumes rose 19.43% to $912 million, the number of unique buyers and sellers fell nearly 28%, reflecting a more selective approach to the market.

Additionally, transactions saw a 59.25% drop from the previous month, suggesting that fewer but more valuable changes may have fueled the sector’s growth.

Overall, Ethereum remains the leading blockchain for NFT sales, bringing in $495.7 million in the last 30 days alone. In second and third place were Bitcoin and Solana, which respectively generated $191.4 million and $107 million in this period.

Interestingly, the two blockchains went in completely opposite directions when it came to attracting buyers. CryptoSlam data shows that NFT buyers on the Bitcoin network soared more than 80% in the past month, while those on Solana fell at least 37%.

Immutable and Mythos rounded out the top five blockchains by monthly NFT sales volume. The former posted $35 million worth of sales, up 66.51% from the previous month, while the latter lost 36.72% of its tally over the same period, reaching just 25.4 millions of dollars.

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